Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This is still not my first speech. In regard to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, as senators would be well aware, I represent the fabulous state of Queensland. I have just heard from my colleague Senator Rice a very good elaboration of just how crucial that littoral wonder of the world is, not just for my home state of Queensland but for all Australians to feel proud of. It's a significant part of our Australian identity. In regard to the state of Queensland, it is also a key driver of our economy.

This report details the serious threat that the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is currently under. It is worth noting that when we talk about the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park it is not just the reef. The reef and coral are magnificent—and the life that depends explicitly on it in that location. But we're talking about the entire marine park—all the other waterways. It runs right up to the coast. So it is all of those coastal areas of Queensland that, literally, abut the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. So the health of the entire marine park, beyond just the coral, is something that we all need to be significantly conscious of. The health of the entire marine park is something that is at serious risk.

Let's not forget that we were very much on the cusp of the World Heritage listing of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park as being in danger on a global level because of inadequate management. And that's not a reflection on the marine park authority; it's a reflection on government policies at both state and federal levels, allowing the pressures on the marine park to become worse and worse. Climate change and the impact of the continued push to expand coalmines in Queensland is a key part of that, but there are so many other factors, as well, particularly along the coastal areas of Queensland. I want to give one example. The city of Gladstone is not often thought of as an environmental destination. It's thought of as an industrial hub—and it's certainly part of that—but it is also at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. It is an area of amazing natural beauty. When I was travelling through there a couple of times in the lead-up to last year's federal election, I met with some of the people from the local council there, and they are very much conscious of the need to diversify their economy into the future—to not just rely on the old approaches of resource extraction. The day I went through was a day when a cruise ship came into Gladstone Harbour. It is not what people think of first up when they're thinking of going to Gladstone, but it is an area where the natural environment is that of the entire marine park, where you can dive among coral and look at the fish. There are all of the wonders of the marine park that are a natural attractor to that region.

Just a couple of weeks ago I was in Rockhampton and was able to speak to people there from Capricorn Enterprise, an umbrella organisation for a whole range of businesses in that region. They were emphasising a number of factors important to the economy and the jobs of that region, particularly in regard to being able to promote the Capricorn region as a key tourist destination. Again, part of that is the reef but part of it is the marine park and the health of the marine and water environment. For example, the moves and positive initiatives in recent times—again, driven by the Greens and many others in the environment movement—to preserve more marine areas from commercial fishing were resisted fiercely by some on the opposite side, by some in the LNP in particular. But, as was predicted, they have enabled better growth of fish stocks in those regions, making it more available for people who are attracted to recreational fishing.

We have Great Keppel Island, a key driver for people to come to that area, where economic and social opportunities in that region alone have not been able to be advanced because of an appalling lease that was given many years ago on state government owned land for an inappropriate massive development. We have the absurd approach in this state election at the moment from people suggesting that the way forward is to build a casino on Great Keppel Island—a completely economically unsustainable approach when there are so many other proposals that would enable the restoration of that island environmentally and as a great tourist destination, and enable a multitude of different small, appropriate economic activities that would bring people to the island and to the region.

Tourism just in the Capricorn region injects $525 million of direct expenditure each year which supports over 5,000 jobs just in that region. That's over three to four times more than the figures given out for the entire Adani mine. It's a key reason why I defend the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park—not just the reef but the marine park itself. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.